Future of Power in Asia: U.S.–Korea Relations in a Changing World
December 8th, 2025 11:30AM -1:30PM
This program is free to attend and registration is required. Lunch is provided.
As Asia undergoes profound geopolitical shifts, the U.S.–Korea alliance remains a longstanding and vital anchor of regional stability and global security. Join us for a timely conversation with former Ambassador Philip Goldberg (joining virtually), U.S. Ambassador to Korea (2022-2025), as he shares his insights and perspectives on the strategic, economic, and diplomatic forces shaping the region’s future. The program will also feature closing reflections from Consul General Eunji Seo as she concludes her distinguished posting in Seattle.
About our Speakers
Philip S. Goldberg has served as U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines and U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, Chief of Mission in Kosovo, and Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. Other overseas assignments include Chile, Colombia, and South Africa. Most recently, he served as Chargé d’Affaires. Ambassador Goldberg’s Washington assignments include Coordinator for Implementation of UN sanctions on North Korea; acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs; Executive Assistant to Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott, and Bosnia Desk Officer and Special Assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. He was a member of the American negotiating team at the Dayton Peace Conference on Bosnia. Ambassador Goldberg, a Career Minister in the U.S. Foreign Service, has received numerous Presidential, State Department and Intelligence Community awards. He is a graduate of Boston University.
Eunji Seo is the first female Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Seattle's 45-year history. She is committed to promoting the safety, rights, and cultural pride of the Korean community while fostering cooperation between the Korean and local communities. She began her diplomatic career in 1995 with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and has held key positions, including the first female Consul in San Francisco and the first female Counsellor at the Korean Embassy in Hanoi. She later directed the Culture and Arts Division and the Multilateral Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance Division at MOFA. Internationally, she served as Minister-Counsellor at the Korean Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, advocating for South Korea's interests and global disarmament. She also became the first female Director-General for Public Diplomacy and Cultural Affairs at MOFA and led the 2021 SEOUL UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Preparatory Secretariat. In 2024, she was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame as the first foreign diplomat to receive this honor and was also named one of the Best Heads of Korean Missions Abroad by the World Korean Newspaper. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from Yonsei University (1992) and an M.A. in Political Science from Boston University (1999). She is married with two daughters.
Jacqueline Miller has led the World Affairs Council of Seattle since May 2014. She held senior positions in policy organizations and non-profits on the east coast before moving to the Pacific Northwest. In Seattle, she also serves on the Mayor’s International Affairs Advisory Board; is a member of the Civic Council for UW’s Master of Arts in Applied International Studies (MAAIS) program; and serves on the Washington State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. She is a board member of the World Affairs Councils of America; a current board member and past chair of the board of Global Ties U.S, and is a member of the Board of Advisors of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations. She is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Prior to joining the World Affairs Council, Jacqueline served as Director of External Relations at Independent Diplomat in New York, working with marginalized democratic political actors to help them navigate the United Nations, the EU, and other international diplomatic fora. Previously, she was a Senior Associate at the EastWest Institute (EWI) in New York, where she created and led the U.S. program. At EWI, she focused on national security policy, the U.S.-Russia and U.S.-China relationships, as well as nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation issues. She was deputy director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Washington (DC) programs, where she oversaw CFR’s robust DC meetings program as well as outreach on Capitol Hill and the DC diplomatic community. She got her start in think tanks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she was deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia program. She has also taught at The George Washington University, where she undertook graduate work after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cornell University.
She has been a commentator for various news sources (print, web, and broadcast), including the New York Times, the BBC, CBC, and Voice of America. Her honors include being named a Truman Security Fellow as well as receiving a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) for Russia. She was also an International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) Visiting Scholar in Kyrgyzstan.
Michael Wills has served as President at NBR since July 2024.
Prior to his current position, he was executive vice president (from 2018 to 2024), vice president of strategy and finance (from 2016 to 2017), vice president of research and operations (from 2008 to 2015), and director of the Strategic Asia and Southeast Asia Studies Programs (from 2000 to 2007).
His research expertise includes geopolitics, international security, and the international relations of Asia. He is co-editor with Ashley J. Tellis and most recently Alison Szalwinksi of eleven Strategic Asia volumes—including Reshaping Economic Interdependence in the Indo-Pacific (2023), Navigating Tumultuous Times in the Indo-Pacific (2021–22), U.S.-China Competition for Global Influence (2020), China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions (2019), Power, Ideas, and Military Strategy in the Asia-Pacific (2017), Understanding Strategic Cultures in the Asia-Pacific (2016), and Foundations of National Power in the Asia-Pacific (2015)—and with Robert M. Hathaway of New Security Challenges in Asia (2013). He is a contributing editor to three other Strategic Asia books and several other edited volumes on Asian security.
Before joining NBR, Mr. Wills worked at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, and prior to that with Control Risks Group, an international political and security risk management firm, in London.
He holds a BA (Honors) in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford.